The Dyslexia of the Divine--How Last is First in God's Economy

"I am so glad I'm not in charge!" I admitted to my husband as I prepared to attend an out-of-town writer's conference. I had anticipated it for months, and the day had finally arrived. I could barely contain my enthusiasm as I imagined three days as the recipient of someone else's planning, teaching, cooking, cleaning, and bedmaking. Instead of teaching the classes, I could be the student, taking in wonderful words of wisdom and instruction without having to lift a finger.

If you are a wife, mother, administrative assistant, event coordinator, or minister (full-time or lay person), you can relate.

The first sign that something was going terribly wrong had come the day before during morning devotions.

In Oswald Chamber's My Utmost for His Highest, my daily reading began with these words from Matthew 20:28:

"The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve."

The next day, the day of the conference, I read these words from Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:15:

"I will very gladly spend and be spent for you."

Chambers writes, "Paul became a sacramental personality; wherever he went, Jesus Christ helped Himself to his life. Many of us are after our own ends, and Jesus Christ cannot help Himself to our lives. If we are abandoned to Jesus, we have no ends of our own to serve."

"But Lord," I argued with Him as I walked my dog, "this is my one chance for someone to take care of me for a change! What about my rest, my enrichment, and my relaxation. What about me?!"

As I rounded the corner for home, a warm sweet breeze wafted over me, caressing my face and making me sigh in delight. His words came just as sweetly to my heart.


"He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed" (Proverbs 11:35).

I left for the conference with a new mission and agenda. I would serve.

"Here am I Lord, send me."

Two days later, I returned from the conference refreshed and satisfied in ways I never could have imagined. I experienced joy as I intentionally looked for ways to serve my sisters and brothers in Christ and met people with whom I never would have interacted if I had gone into the weekend with an inwardly-focused attitude. In the dyslexia of the divine, I came away with blessings I never dreamed of because I let Jesus Christ help Himself to my life. 

"Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all" (Mark 9:35).

 Are you struggling with serving versus being served? I challenge you to take God at His word. Trust Him to refresh you and provide everything you need as you surrender yourself to Him.



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Would You Wash Jesus' Feet? Lesson #2 from the Homeless

Jeff Snow is a man's man.  

The service manager at Goodyear Tire and Auto, Jeff's not afraid to get his hands dirty.  He was quick to engage me in conversation that night at the park.  I got the sense that he enjoyed being in control of a situation and getting things done. I was surprised to find that he was the man I was supposed to talk to that night -- the man who washed homeless men's feet.

For two years, he told me, he and his team of foot washers had set up their station each week at a local park where homeless men gathered for a free meal and a kind word.  Jeff described what would happen next.

"The men knew that we had a new, clean pair of socks for them, but that they couldn't get the socks unless we washed their feet.  For some of them, they hadn't been able to wash their feet in a week.  On winter nights we'd make sure we had lots of warm water."

"While one of us washed their feet,"  Jeff continued, "someone else would be praying for them.  There's something about having their feet in the water that brings about a quiet time with God. It is a very spiritual experience," he said.

Snow's ministry was not all one-sided. 

"One day," he related, "I reached down to pray for a man, and he began praying for me."  Foot washing, he says, "is a humbling experience, both for you and the person washing your feet.  It humbled me to realize that I could go home, jump in the shower, and wash my feet every day. Some of these people haven't had the chance to wash their feet in a week."

Jeff Snow and his foot washing team are my heroes.  In each homeless person who comes their way, they see the face (and the feet) of Jesus.  And they get to minister to Him. How cool is that?

"As much as you've done it unto the least of these, my brothers," Christ said, "you've done it unto me." (Mat. 25:40)  

 

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Backward Giving

It was the only time I saw my daughter cry during our family mission trip to Mexico. Our assignment that day was to visit one of the poorest families in the church. Marta was a single mom and the sole provider for her mother and five children. They lived in a one-room cinderblock house the size of my kitchen and living room. Until a team from the states had built their home, all seven of them had lived in a one-room shack made of thick corrugated cardboard walls and a tin roof.

When we arrived, all five of the children met us by the side of the dirt road where they had been waiting for hours. They were neatly dressed in their Sunday clothes. Pati, the youngest child and only girl, had her shiny dark hair carefully braided and tied with two ribbons. After the introductions were made, each child shyly approached us with gifts. Pati presented her gift to my youngest daughter. She handed her a carefully washed piece of fruit neatly wrapped in a napkin.

Knowing that these children had very little to eat, my daughter looked at me with wide eyes. “Mom!” she whispered, “I can’t take this! What if it’s all they have?”

“Take it,” I encouraged her. “They care more about giving it to you than keeping it for themselves.” That night I held her as she cried. We all cried as we talked about how humbling it was to be the recipients of such sacrificial gifts

American Christians, myself included, approach giving like this, “If I have enough money left over after I pay my bills and meet my family’s needs, I will give.” Philippians 4:19 seems to support this. “And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” That is until you read the context. Earlier in the chapter, Paul talks about how the Philippian church had been the only church to sacrificially give to meet his needs. He called their gifts “fragrant offering(s), acceptable sacrifice(s), and pleasing to God.”

It is only AFTER Paul commends them for their sacrificial giving does he issue the promise: “AND (because you have given to me FIRST), my God will meet all your needs.” We American Christians have it backward. The reason God gives to us is not so every need of ours will be satisfied, but so we can give to others. The late Pastor E.V. Hill, speaking to the congregation of the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Watts, Los Angeles, put it this way, “When GAAWD blesses you, he don’t even have you in mind!”

Will you join me in trusting God enough to give sacrificially?